Tuesday, March 3rd

As the franchise lawsuits make their way through the courts, lawmakers in Missouri again are pushing new legislation, Senate Bill 365 and House Bill 759, that would make it more difficult for alcohol suppliers to sever their relationships with distributors

Treasury Wine Estates has re-entered the flourishing low-calorie wine market in the United States, launching three slim wine brands endorsed by a celebrity nutritionist to target the estimated one in five Americans on a diet

... members of the bureau say their interests as expanding businesses aren't being served by the bureau's commitment to preserving farmland. It's a battle of wills with no clear winner, and some members are choosing to leave.

A Napa County Superior Court judge has ordered a winery in Wooden Valley to temporarily stop offering tours and wine tastings while Napa County officials seek a wider ban on winery operations, according to court records.

Generally speaking the term "hybrid" today means any grape variety produced by the cross pollination or "marriage" between a vinifera vine such as a Pinot Noir, Cabernet or Chardonnay and a native or American species of grape such as Vitis riparia or Vitis aestivalis.

For the wineries and landowners in Napa Valley, many already participate in the county's sustainability program, Napa Green. Over Earth Day weekend, some of the Napa Green Certified vineyards and wineries will offer special tours, tastings and discounts.

The Oregon Winegrowers Association and southern and central Oregon wine associations are backing a bill they say protects against conflicts between farm uses and winery activities while allowing wineries to pursue revenue from on-site activities.

San Francisco-based WineSimple (www.winesimple.com) announced the launch of its mobile app that uses a proprietary matching algorithm to recommend specific bottles of wine to consumers based on their individual taste preferences.

After attending both ProWein and Vinitaly over the past two weeks, Katherine Canfield (pictured) assesses what the two shows offer their visitors and looks at their influence in the international wine market.

The promotional budget is a 5.6 percent increase on DOCa Rioja's investment last year and was voted through by more than 80 percent of the Rioja wine industry members who sit on the control board. Most of the money will be spent in Spain, the UK, Germany, the US, Switzerland, Mexico and China.

US brewer Olympia Beer is offering US$1 million for "the safe return of "Bigfoot". The year-long contest has started in "an effort to highlight the proud histories of both Bigfoot and Olympia Beer in the [US] Northwest".

Why is Portland such a great wine city? Much less has actually been said about that. And yet Portland has lots of impressive restaurant wine lists and first-rate shops with interesting wines from all over the world.

Wine on tap may soon be coming to bars and restaurants throughout the state under bills (HB 623, SB 658) edging towards passage that would do away with a Prohibition-rooted law that caps the size of wine containers at 3 liters.

Up to 30 full time and 200 seasonal jobs are set to be created at Alfriston-based vineyard Rathfinny Estate. The permanent jobs will be in the vineyard, winery and office. Up to 200 jobs will come as the vineyard expands and trained pruners are required to care for the vines.

Undocumented immigrants from Mexico represent nearly 80 percent of the 268,361 people who have thus far been granted a temporary reprieve from deportation under a federal program for those illegally brought to the United States as children.

The deal would see the JSE-listed group take over three Scotland-based malt whisky distilleries - Tobermory, located on the Isle of Mull; the Isle of Islay-based Bunnahabhain; and Deanston, in Doune, near Stirling - producing a total of 6.7-million litres a year of alcohol

The eight senators writing the bill plan to announce provisions this week, ahead of a major hearing in the SenateJudiciary Committee on Wednesday, but some details already have been leaked. Among them is the points system to select immigrants.

The lavishly decorated Société du Vin, owned by Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander, will open in Bridgehampton, where the elite think nothing of plunking down millions of dollars for a beach shack and $1 million for golf-club memberships